MERS cases spike to 339 in Saudi Arabia

[Kushan Prince]

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/health/2014/04/22/ctw-pkg-lakhani-uae-mers-virus-spike.cnn.html

(CNN) -- The number of new cases of the Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus spiked by 26 over the weekend, including 10 deaths, the Saudi Arabian Health Ministry said.
This brings the total number of known cases of MERS-CoV to 339 in Saudi Arabia, including 102 deaths, according to the ministry.
MERS-CoV was discovered in September 2012. Saudi Arabia has seen an alarming increase in confirmed cases this month, and health officials are stepping up efforts to combat the virus.
It is not clear why there was a sudden increase, said Dr. Abdullah Al-Asiri, assistant undersecretary at the Saudi Ministry of Health and a member of the Scientific Committee of Infectious Diseases.
Saudi Arabia has more MERS cases WHO tracks new coronavirus to Middle East Killer coronavirus in the Middle East
"We have faced an increase in the number of cases around the same time last year at the end of winter," the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying last week.
State media reported Monday that former Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah had stepped down after the sharp rise in cases.
Saudi officials have called on the World Health Organization and a group of medical experts to meet at the end of this month to discuss the status of the virus.
Ministry of Health spokesman Khalid Marghalani said recently a drug company would be arriving in Saudi Arabia to discuss the production of a vaccine to fight the virus.
MERS-CoV comes from the same group of viruses as the common cold and attacks the respiratory system, the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Symptoms, which include fever, cough and shortness of breath, can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.
Although many of the cases have occurred on the Arabian Peninsula, people have died of the infection elsewhere, including in European countries and Tunisia in North Africa. However, all of the people involved contracted the disease in the Middle East before being diagnosed. Limited human-to-human transmission of the disease has also occurred in other countries.
Health officials do not know exactly how the virus spreads, and they stress hygiene, such as diligent hand-washing, to limit its spread.
The WHO has not recommended any MERS-related travel restrictions but says member countries should monitor any unusual respiratory infection patterns in travelers to the Arabian Peninsula.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/27/health/saudi-arabia-mers-coronavirus/

[Kushan Prince]

Traders fiercely dismissive of Mers link to camels

Special place of the animal in Saudi society may hinder control of disease: Experts



The 40-odd men gathered in a sandy, dung-scattered auction pen at one of Saudi Arabia’s largest camel markets were fiercely dismissive of a link scientists have found between the animals and an often fatal virus in humans.

“It’s not true. It’s a lie. We live with camels, we drink their milk, we eat their meat. There’s no disease. We live and sleep and spend our whole lives with them and there’s nothing,” said Faraj Al Subai’i, a trader at the market.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus has infected 345 people in the kingdom since it was identified two years ago, causing fever, pneumonia and kidney failure in some, and killing around a third of sufferers.

Although many patients in a recent outbreak in Jeddah appear to have become infected through person-to-person transmission in hospitals, Mers has been found in bats and camels, and many experts say the latter form the most likely animal reservoir from which humans are becoming infected.

Camels occupy a special place in Saudi society, providing a link to an important but vanishing nomadic tradition and valued at prices that can climb to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised people at most risk of severe disease to avoid contact with camels and take precautions when visiting places where the animals are present, and to avoid drinking raw milk.

Among the pungent animal pens in Riyadh’s camel market, stretching several miles along a highway out of the city, the traders, owners and camel workers said they had been given no advice, information or warnings on Mers by government officials. Even Ehab El Shabouri, an Egyptian veterinary doctor in one of the many practices stretching along a nearby road that cater to the camel owners, said he was unaware that the Mers virus had been found in the animals.

“If it was related to camels, the Agriculture Ministry would have taken some measures,” he said.

While the link is the subject of extensive study among scientists outside Saudi Arabia, it has been noticeably absent from much of the official debate inside the kingdom.

However on Tuesday, acting Saudi Health Minister Adel Fakieh told a news conference there has been “consensus in the discussions taking place over the last two days after the scientific team reviewed various evidence that it is advised not to get into close contact with camels, especially sick camels”.

He was speaking after meeting foreign experts including from the WHO who were invited by the government to help investigate Mers. They have also advised people not to consume raw milk or raw meat products from camels.

Fakieh was appointed a week ago after the former minister, Abdullah Al Rabeeah, was replaced following mounting expressions of public unease and anger on social media at what many Saudis saw as an inadequate and opaque approach to the outbreak.

Unlike his predecessor, Fakieh immediately visited affected hospitals and was shown on television meeting Mers patients in an apparent attempt to win back public trust.

Mers is of particular concern given Saudi Arabia’s role as host Haj pilgrimage which attracts millions to the kingdom each year. Fakieh said very old people, children and those with chronic diseases should delay their pilgrimage, set for early October, this year, but that no other restrictions were being imposed.

Some infection experts have speculated that local sensitivities over the reputation of an animal much beloved in the desert kingdom, and closely bound to its cultural identity, may have caused resistance to the idea it may be behind the Mers outbreak.

Those experts fear this could hinder preventative measures aimed at limiting the spread of the disease, which so far appears not to transmit easily between people, by controlling it at source.

Camels are a common sight in some eastern districts of Riyadh, grazing on empty plots of land or carted in trucks on major roads. While they are less prevalent inside some other Saudi cities, such as Jeddah, they are still often seen on town outskirts.

At once a source of transport, milk and meat, camels were indispensible to the nomadic life of the Saudi people’s bedouin forefathers, inspiring admiration, affection and verse after verse of classical Arabic poetry. That nomadic lifestyle is long gone, replaced decades ago by an urban culture of cars, supermarkets and television. The ownership and love of camels is an integral part of that nostalgic vision, expressed in races and pageants that attract tens of thousands of spectators, and in the millions of riyals that change hands for the fastest or most beautiful animals.

Among the corrugated metal sheds and bumpy roads of Riyadh’s camel market most beasts on sale are far less eminent specimens, said the traders, but are kept for breeding, for their products including milk and urine, and eventually for the slaughterhouse.

As a group of men in white Arab robes dispute the merits of the camels on offer, an auctioneer with a cane touches one tall animal and opens the bidding at 7,500 riyals ($2,000). Camel flesh is displayed in the meat section of most Saudi supermarkets alongside cuts of New Zealand lamb and Irish beef, while the milk is usually drunk fresh and unpasteurised, and prized as a healthful panacea.

“We drink the milk ourselves and provide it to our guests. It’s medicine. People come to us for camel milk for their health, particularly to cure cancer. We all drink it every day and see how strong we are,” said a white-bearded camel trader.

An outraged, high-pitched grunting erupted nearby as a pair of herders walloped a large beast on its haunches to steer it along the correct road, past a Bedouin-style black-and-white tent where five men were offering prayer.

Eid Al Rashidi, one of several men from the same tribe who were buying and selling camels at the auction, said his father and grandfather had both owned herds and now he has 30 of the animals, valued from 20,000 to 30,000 riyals each.

He jutted a finger angrily as he declared there could be no Mers cases among the camels. A small crowd behind him added their voices in agreement, many of them asking how it could be linked to the animals if none of the traders had fallen sick.

As bidding for an adult continued, a group of very young camels, sprouting fluffy blonde curls atop spindly legs, trotted past with a young Saudi boy scampering behind them and patting them on their backs.

“If it has been confirmed that Mers exists in camels, then we are in the danger zone as we are playing with fire,” said Salman Al Rasheed, one of the traders.

“But this is not true, because this market has camels from all regions of the country, sick camels and healthy camels, and we have never seen Mers among any of us,” he added.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2014/May/middleeast_May28.xml&section=middleeast

[Bengal_Tiger]

1. The Hajj will be starting in a few months time. 3 million Muslims at least (probably unofficially quite a bit more) will be converging on the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina.


2. These pilgrims are from all continents of the world and from every major country in the world.

If they contract MERS then return their countries and spread it there will be an international epidemic.


3. I warned the Saudi regime in previous posts in this forum to stop carrying on with their evil and that there would be consequences. Now we are seeing it.

Saudi Arabia is in a crisis now with some Saudis refusing to shake hands with other Saudis due to fear of this.


4. Saudi regime needs to sort out its act in a number of ways including:

- Stop supporting terrorism and radicalism (e.g. Jamaat e Islami in Bangladesh)
- Stop destabilizing other Muslim countries (e.g. Iraq, Syria, Bangladesh)
- Swap the Saudi state symbol (fort with palm trees) with the current flag which has sacred words on it.
- Just generally stop oppressing Saudis and putting them in jail.
- Stop the abuse and torture of foreign workers.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Virulent

A disease, and fear, spread across the kingdom
Apr 26th 2014 | JEDDAH | From the print edition

THE Red Sea city of Jeddah is the most relaxed spot in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But its residents are worried by a rise in the number of people diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, known as MERS. Waiters at Nakheel, a popular restaurant, have donned face masks and diners are less ready to share a shisha, the water-pipe popular in the Arab world. Wedding guests are refusing to kiss each other hello, while businessmen say some of their colleagues have started politely refusing to shake hands.

Few cases had been reported since the virus, a less infectious but deadlier version of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), was found in Saudi Arabia in September 2012. But Saudi officials announced on April 23rd that 11 new cases had been discovered that day alone, bringing the total to 48 cases in five days, compared with a total of 272 cases diagnosed in the past 18 months. Of those infected, 83 have died, including several foreigners of undisclosed nationalities.



Though MERS first appeared in the oil-rich east of the country, possibly having passed to humans from camels, Jeddah is now the worst-affected place, with 21 recent cases. Earlier this month King Fahd Hospital temporarily closed its accident-and-emergency department after a cluster of people were struck down. Given that Jeddah is Saudi Arabia’s business hub and the jump-off point for pilgrims going to Mecca, MERS could hurt the economy if it spreads.

The government says it is being candid and has held press conferences. But many Saudis, used to being kept in the dark, think the risk is more serious than they are being told. The authorities have told the media to report only officially confirmed cases. This has led accusations to swirl on Twitter—as everything does in the kingdom these days—that the true number of cases is higher. Many of those infected in Jeddah have been health workers, suggesting insufficient precautions are being taken in hospitals. Some medics are urging the authorities to declare an emergency.

Instead, on April 21st King Abdullah fired the health minister, Abdullah al-Rabeeah, who had said at a press conference the day before that he had no idea why MERS appeared to be spiking.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21601308-disease-and-fear-spread-across-kingdom-virulent

Now in a few months, millions of Hujjaj (plural of Hajji - pilgrim) will gather in Mecca and Medina and other parts of Saudi. They will be in close body proximity to each other, praying next to each other. The sanitary conditions in the camp city of Mina are quite poor as well as in Arafah (plain where Hujjaj spend one day) and Muzdalifa (area where Hujjaj spend a night before the day of Eid).

If something is not done the entire world will be affected.

The Saudi regime needs to act and also take a deep look at its policies and its society. They also need to repent to Allah for their sins and ask for forgiveness.

They can start with changing the flag. The same goes for the Iranians and Iraqis.



The Islamic declaration of faith - on the Saudi flag - being desecrated, with it being on a football so thus being kicked around by people's shoes.